LOS ANGELES – A year ago this week, the Dodgers were off to a sluggish start when they promoted one of their top prospects, ostensibly for a brief big league cameo, in hopes of getting an energy boost.

Cody Bellinger injected more than energy into their lineup and never went back to the minors. He became the first rookie to lead a 100-win team in both home runs and RBIs and was the unanimous choice as the National League Rookie of the Year.

Here we go again?

The Dodgers called up top pitching prospect Walker Buehler on Sunday and will activate him Monday. The 23-year-old Buehler will make his first major league start Monday night against the Miami Marlins.

“High hopes. High hopes. But not even close to what he expects of himself,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the expectations for Buehler. “September, obviously it was moving kind of quick for him. There was a learning process. But in spring training, I thought he showed really well. I still love his four-pitch mix. And I think he’s going to come here and pitch well.”

Buehler got his first taste of the big leagues as a September call-up last season and was given a chance to win a spot in the Dodgers’ postseason bullpen. It didn’t happen. He allowed eight runs on 11 hits in 9 1/3 innings over eight relief appearances.

Back in his more accustomed role as a starter, Buehler has dominated Triple-A hitters in three starts for Oklahoma City this month, holding them to a .204 batting average. Over 13 innings, he is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA, 16 strikeouts, 10 hits and four walks in 13 innings.

“Obviously excitement. I don’t think there’s any surprise there,” Buehler said of his reaction when OKC manager Bill Haselman told him Saturday that he was going to start for the Dodgers.

“This was more of a surprise than September was, obviously,” Buehler said. “There was a lot of buildup to September. It’s just different. Starting vs. being in the bullpen, I’m doing what I’ve done my whole career. This is almost a more settled feeling just because I’m going to get the ball for the first pitch tomorrow instead of later in the game.”

Nonetheless, Buehler said he learned a valuable lesson from that big league baptism last fall.

“Yeah – these hitters are good and you know that,” he said. “But you don’t really understand how good they are and why they’re so good until you see them in person. But most of us here are pretty good too. I’m going to try to remember that and attack.”

The Dodgers have limited Buehler’s workload. In his three starts this season, he has completed five innings only once and topped out at 80 pitches in his most recent start (last Monday). Roberts said Sunday that six innings and 90 pitches “would totally be fair” as a limit for Buehler on Monday.

For his part, Buehler is used to living with reins on him.

“That’s out of my control. That’s not really my job. My job is to make however many I get count,” said Buehler, who had Tommy John surgery shortly after being drafted in the first round three years ago. “(Director of player development) Brandon Gomes asked me a couple weeks ago if I wanted to stretch out. I told him, ‘I’ve wanted to stretch out since June of last year.’ It is what it is. I get why they do those things. But it’s hard when there’s scores on the scoreboard and you want to keep going.”

Buehler will have a more difficult time sticking around beyond Monday than Bellinger did a year ago, in part because of the restrictions the Dodgers have put on his workload.

The Dodgers needed to add a fifth starter after placing left-hander Rich Hill on the DL with a finger injury last week. Hill is expected to rejoin the rotation Friday in San Francisco, but the Dodgers will need an extra starter for their doubleheader there Saturday. Buehler is “an option” for that start, Roberts said, or he could be headed back to Triple-A on Tuesday.

“There’s a couple layers. One is the overall workload,” said Roberts who pegged Buehler’s target this spring at 140 to 150 innings for the season (postseason included). “There is a point where you could pencil him in and give him a runway for the rest of the season to not surpass what we as an organization feel is not too much. There is also an opportunity in the now for someone to pitch. … We chose to take advantage of that.

“The other part of it is that guys we have right now are throwing well here. And when you’re in the minors you can also manage his innings and usage a lot better than here.”

Buehler said he is not looking beyond Monday night.

“You can’t,” he said. “At this point in my career, you’re hoping for one start here and there. I’m getting one tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that.

“It’s exciting. It’s the big leagues and it’s time to go now.”

ALSO

Hill threw a bullpen session Sunday afternoon and experienced no problems with the cracked fingernail that landed him on the DL. He is eligible to come off the DL on Wednesday but is expected to pitch Friday in San Francisco.

Roberts said the Dodgers’ rotation for the Marlins series will be Buehler on Monday, Kenta Maeda on Tuesday and Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday. That means Kershaw will not pitch in the series at AT&T Park, where he is 13-4 with a 1.30 ERA in his career.

Bill Plunkett has covered everything from rodeo to Super Bowls to boxing (yeah, I was there the night Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off) during a career that started far too long ago to mention and eventually brought him to the OC some time last century (1999 actually). He has been covering Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register since 2003, spending time on both the Angels and Dodgers beats.